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12:00 am, July 28, 2008
Dream new venture for sleep coach

England football squad adviser designs range of new products and signs manufacturing deal

By James Chapelard

Manchester-based sleep coach Nick Littlehales has advised the England football squad on how to achieve maximum match fitness by getting the right kind of overnight rest.

His expertise could not save the team from the nightmare of failing to qualify for Euro 2008, but he hopes this will not hinder his new business venture.

Littlehales has designed up to 40 sleep-related products using technology developed in the sports industry.

He has now signed a deal with Wilmslow-based Comfy Quilts to manufacture items such as mattresses which use the same cushioning materials as sports shoes and pillows with chilled inserts which cool down a sleeper's head.

“Sleep is often interrupted because a person's head gets too hot. You put the inserts in the fridge for a few hours and they cool the head down during the night,” he said.

Littlehales believes there is a market for the products among the public as well as athletes. “All these products and the technology come from the world of sport rather than Bhs,” said Littlehales. “Sleep debt is a major problem which many people have never taken much notice of. You might be sleeping eight hours a day but you are not getting the full benefits — unless you sleep in the right way and on the right products.”

The deal will involve privately-owned Comfy Quilts taking a 50 per cent share in Littlehales' business, Sleep Active Ltd, which trades as sleepathlete.com. The website, which promotes the consultancy side of his business as well as selling the products, is being relaunched in September.

Littlehales, a former international sales and marketing director at the Slumberland Group, said the sports world has a lot to teach business people about the value of sleep.

Having worked with the Football Association since Euro 2004, he said he has seen first hand the link between performance on the field and full recovery from a good night's sleep. Despite stories about boozing footballers, Littlehales said they take sleep very seriously and see it as an essential part of their training and recovery. “If you are a professional athlete you need to know how to sleep properly, if you have to perform mentally and physically on the pitch.

Things have changed so much since the days when George Best used to run around on a diet of whisky and fags,” said Littlehales, whose clients include present day Manchester United players.

Overstretched

In 2005 Littlehales had a consultancy business in Tib Street in the Northern Quarter and received regular visits from premiership players.

The business, Private Sanctuary Ltd, went under in August 2005 when he overstretched himself by opening a large shop in Piccadilly Gardens selling sleep products on the back of his work with the England squad. “The shop was too big at the time and I couldn't devote enough time to it,” Littlehales said.

After the collapse, he started again by moving his consultancy to the internet and now believes it is time to go back into marketing products — but only online this time.

“We want to expand sleep athlete.com into a range of products which you would see on the high street to buy. We are going to build the brand,” Littlehales said. “We are trying to make sleep interesting and cool.”

Littlehales said his products would be priced in the mid to upper range. Jodi Schofield, director of Burgess Beds in Haslingden, said until the consumer downturn hit, people were spending more than £1,000 on a mattress because of health concerns.

Schofield said: “Nick wants to market the products to the general public but it's quite a niche market and not everybody can afford an expensive bed.

“He has some good ideas which are very futuristic. It's not a massive market, it's a select market and a lot of marketing is through word of mouth.”



COMMENTS? jchapelard@crain.com

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